The cost of operating of high value equipment such as aircraft is heavily dependent on maintenance. Replacement of “service articles” is perhaps the largest single maintenance expense. Such service articles tend to wear out over time. Because of this, there is a motivation to refurbish and reuse such service articles. However, this can be challenging when the wear occurs over precision internal surfaces.
In particular, service parts having internal wear surfaces defining internal cavities can be difficult to refurbish. An example of such a service part is the cylindrical landing gear strut of an aircraft. The strut includes an internal surface that provides the force for hydraulically raising and lowering the landing gear in response to pressure changes in a cylindrical cavity defined by the internal surface. Through the ongoing process of cycling the strut, the internal surface becomes damaged due to sliding wear and corrosion.
There is a need to find efficient and high quality ways of restoring such internal surfaces to their original factory dimensions and quality.